"Chisnall creates art that references such things as structure, time and Modernism as they pass through a very contemporary mindset that focuses on humor, transience, functionality and futility.”
D. Dominick Lambardi, 'Repurposing With a Passion', The Huffington Post.

Wednesday, 27 February 2008

This sketch is of a sculpture that I've been planning for some time now. Its for a piece that would be a hybrid between my 'Fetish Tower' piece, which is made of human hair, and my sculpture, 'The City', which is predominently made of wood. It will be interesting to see how much the end result looks like this initial sketch.

Monday, 18 February 2008

This is for an idea I have for taking some human skulls and altering them so that they appear to have morphed with aspects of certain super heroes. I think that this should be quite a fun project but I’m not too sure how original it is.

With ‘Crutch & Tumour Box’ I was trying to apply organic principles to something that is obviously man-made and rectilinear.Taking the construct of the box as a starting point, this piece pursues the biological anomaly of the cancerous cell as a mode of enquiry.Whilst mimicking the out of control mechanism of the malfunctioning and self-replicating cancerous cell, the piece hopefully manages to convey a biomorphic presence.Teetering like a top-heavy fraction, ‘Crutch & Tumour Box’s’ comical appearance is further heightened by the necessitation of its crutch section - a support that is deliberately undermined by the application of a wheel.

Ok – this isn’t, strictly speaking, artwork but I thought I’d include it in my blog anyway. One, because there was a certain amount of creativity involved and two, because I thought that it was fun.Basically, I entered an on-line script writing competition run by Sony. In the competition entrants got to submit a 500 word section of script that had to follow on from a piece written by John Malkovich. Then it would get whittled down to five scripts, John would choose the winner and then the process would start over again.Anyway – John chose my script, ‘Doppelganger’, as the winner of the first round and this is what he said about it:

“ … I’m going to go with the “Doppelganger” script. It’s clever, inventive, and somehow both surprising and inevitable. Very neatly done all in all.”

Wednesday, 13 February 2008

‘Nail Box’ is a sculpture greatly indebted to and influenced by the minkisi artefacts of central Africa. Many of these ritualistic objects are carved wooden totems that have had nails and other metal items hammered into them. However, where as the minkisi derive their power from their contents, with ‘Nail Box’ I was trying to create something that’s presence was derived from its adornment of carefully selected nails and rusty metal. By bringing together so many items that had interacted with the elements and their specific environments I hoped to create a piece that would generate a cumulative resonance.As is the case with many of my sculpture, the found materials used in this pieces’ construction were selected for their ‘resonance’ and collected over several years.Whilst most of the metal items used in this piece were found in London, anywhere from the streets of Hackney to the inside of the Dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral, much of it was collected from the my travels around Britain and abroad, including Europe, Mexico, Cambodia, Thailand, Tunisia and India.Considering the obsessive nature behind the way I collect and hoard the materials that I use in my work (you should see my studio – it is full of boxes of rubbish (a.k.a. treasure) – I fear that I am a lost cause), I see these sculptures as totems or magnifications of the ritualistic side of everyday life. Physical embodiments of the personal belief systems we all create around us.

I was surprised how coherently this sketch turned out. Originally I just set out to scribble down a rough idea for a spherical nest-like sculpture that I planned to weld together from bits of scrap metal.Usually when I only have a vague idea for a piece, and no actual materials in front of me to draw from, the working drawing can initially look quite vague or messy (as I sketch out a rough image and then redraw over it – working it out as I go). Yet this one came out quite tight and finished, almost as if I was doing a drawing of a finished piece

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Biog

Based in London since 1999, Chisnall now divides his time and art practice between London and his new, larger studio in Shropshire. Coming from an illustration, painting and print-making background he is now as well known for his sculptures and drawings.

In 2005 he was awarded a bursary and membership from the Royal British Society of Sculptors.

As well as his work appearing in UK and international exhibitions, magazines, on record covers, and on TV (including BBC 2's 'The Culture Show', Channel 4 News, London Live, and Channel 4's 'Four Rooms'), his sculptures have appeared in the feature film, 'Scratch', directed by Jakob Rørvik. In 2013 he was commissioned to produce a series of paintings for the horror film 'Bliaze of Gory'.

The artist's work is featured regularly in on-line articles and interviews, including two separate articles in The Huffington Post.

Chisnall has organised and run art/sculpture workshops for schools and businesses since 1998, including ones for ING Bank's London headquarters via the Royal British Society of Sculptors.

John Malkovich chose Chisnall's script, 'Doppelganger', as the winning entry in the 2008 Sony VAIO Scriptwriting competition. This script, along with Malkovich's was then turned into the short animated film, ‘Snow Angel’.

“ … I’m going to go with the “Doppelganger” script. It’s clever, inventive, and somehow both surprising and inevitable. Very neatly done all in all.” John Malkovich (4th Jan. 2008).

As well as working on his own projects the artist accepts commissions. His clients include Mary Fox Linton, Andy Martin Architects, Converse, Dawood and Tanner, Domus, Ctrl.Alt.Shift, private collectors, and the Ping Pong restaurant chain.

Artist's Statement

Most of my current sculptural work involves the reworking and assemblage of found materials; materials that I feel have a certain ‘resonance’.

Memory, or its fallibility, is also central to a lot of my work. This is more strongly evident in my early pieces, which incorporate or recreate childhood artifacts and toys. A prime example of this is ‘And When I’m a Man I'll Think As a Man’, the life size sculpture of myself as a twelve piece, pre-assembly, model kit. An important aspect of the piece is its bright green colour, which was chosen to match my memory of that of a childhood toy – realizing that the memory would have mutated; exaggerating the luridness of the colour.

Another re-occurring theme or motif in my work is that of the wheeled box or tower, which relates to containment, the urge to possess, and restricted mobility.

As well as the obvious sexual interpretation of the orifice element that has emerged in many of my recent works, my main interest in the device, lies in it being the portal between the internal and the external.

Although not a film maker myself, my work is heavily influenced by my early passion for film and animation. This is evident in my archaic-looking tower sculpture, ‘The City,’ which echoes the same fairy tale or dream-like quality that is characteristic of the short films of animators such as the Brothers Quay and Jan Švankmajer.

“Chisnall’s towering wooden piece is made up of tiny display cases and cabinets made from found materials like skulls, insects and fossils, a kind of modern cabinet of curiosities. Or a nightmarish vision inspired by Jorge Luis Borges. He explains that much like the inhabitants of a big city, each compartmentalised environment plays out its own narrative, seemingly oblivious to that of its neighbour”. Julia Kollewe (journalist – The Guardian and The Independent), 2009.

“...Wayne Chisnall creates art that references such things as structure, time and Modernism as they pass through a very contemporary mindset that focuses on humor, transience, functionality and futility. There is also the presence of popular culture in his thinking, as he addresses the differences between reality and perception, and how that affects the needs, wants and even the formation of the human psyche.” D. Dominick Lambardi, 'Repurposing With a Passion', The Huffington Post, July 14th 2014.